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George Schroeder

Blount’s actions give Duck program a massive black eye

BOISE — Standing outside the locker room, LeGarrette Blount was quietly explaining how it all went down. Even if there was no possible explanation.

“I couldn’t have envisioned anything worse than this right here,” he said.

Could you?

Boise State won 19-8. It wasn’t that close, and the Ducks would have been sifting through wreckage today, anyway.

But then Blount slammed his fist into a Boise State player’s face. And he hit a teammate who was trying to push him away from more trouble. And he confronted a Broncos fan — and says he got slapped in the face by another.

Oregon lost much more than a game Thursday night. The Ducks’ image today isn’t of fancy uniforms, or Chip Kelly’s high-flying offense (not hardly).

The instant YouTube highlight — look it up, because everyone else already has — is of Blount’s blindside punch to Boise State linebacker Byron Hout. Or his fist to the helmet of teammate Garrett Embry.

Or of receivers coach Scott Frost and several security officers wrestling a raging Blount away from several Boise State fans.

That’s what everyone will take from Kelly’s head coaching debut. Another frustrating loss to Boise State. And a postgame scene that spun completely out of control.

“There’s no place for that in anything,” said Kelly, who said he didn’t see the punches. “We’ll make some decisions and take care of it.”

When Kelly has seen it all, he’ll be faced with the first critical decision of his head coaching career. Suspension is the very minimum; Kelly must consider cutting Blount loose.

It doesn’t matter that Blount apologized to “everybody,” including the national television audience, and Oregon fans, and Boise State fans.

“It was just something that I shouldn’t have done,” the senior running back said. “I lost my head. I shouldn’t have done it.”

And a moment later: “As (the game) went on, it just got more and more frustrating. Me in general, I was kind of upset. I should have just took it to the locker room. I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have did anything.

“I should have just took it to the locker room.”

You think? But the damage was done.

Give Blount credit for leaving the locker room once things had calmed down, for staring into the cameras and answering questions for 10 minutes.

Only a couple were about anything that happened before the final gun — and none should have been.

The impotent running game? An offense that didn’t manage a first down until midway through the third quarter? Not quite.

Blount was asked whether he might be suspended. Or face criminal charges.

“I’m hoping we don’t have to take it that far,” he said.

If not, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Blount said there was some smack talk, and some pushing. Video showed Boise State coach Chris Petersen trying to calm things down — and then Blount punched Hout, right in front of Petersen.

A few seconds later, Blount punched Embry. Kelly grabbed Blount, handed him off to Frost, who tried to manhandle him into the locker room.

As they walked away, the Bronco Stadium videoboard replayed the play of the postgame over and over.

The fans watched, and boos rained down. Blount went after one guy, and says he got hit by another.

“I didn’t see him coming,” Blount said.

Kind of like Hout didn’t appear to see Blount’s punch coming.

But should we have seen this coming. Because for the longest time, we’ve been hearing how the Ducks were angry about Boise State’s win last year at Autzen Stadium. Not so much the result, but how it happened.

“We owe that team an ass-whupping,” Blount said, as reported by Sports Illustrated. And that wasn’t the only material we heard from a motivated bunch.

But we now have a whole new definition of cheap shot.

And we also need to question whether the Ducks were too revved up, and whether Kelly needs to go back and reevaluate every aspect of his operation. Offense, defense, special teams.

And also, the other stuff.

“We have to learn to play with emotions and not let them get the better of you,” Kelly said he told the players afterward. “We’ll find out what kind of football team we are. We have to stick together. One game won’t define us as a group.”

And Blount added: “We’re gonna go back home and fix all the things we did wrong.”

Then he slipped back inside the building. And not long afterward Ducks headed back to Eugene, where there’s a whole lot of fixing to be done.